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box closer, thinking it’d be quickly tossed aside as well, but then I saw what was inside: pictures, clothing that held memories, and a bunch of other items that all had stories attached to them. Some good, some not so much.
    I let out a breath and decided to dig in. The first thing I came across was a stack of photos I’d taken with Kira during the last few years of college. In most of them, she’d only been a friend, but the deeper I went into the stack, it was clear when we’d made the transition from friendship to something more.
    Seeing her brought a bitter taste to my mouth. I’d long since stopped hating her, although it took some time. I suppose I was able to get past it because, in the end, I got back everything that was meant to be mine in the first place—Sam, our future. Because I was still in communication with her father, Mr. Tanaka, the head of my father’s company, I’d heard him mention her name a few times in passing. As far as I knew, she’d taken a job on the West Coast working for a magazine out there. I had no idea if she ever worked things out with Reina, her twin, after she’d basically pulled the rug out from under Kira, but that wasn’t my problem. As far as I was concerned, Reina wasn’t the one who needed to be forgiven after everything came out. Kira was. Reina had done nothing wrong aside from trying to protect her sister. While I wished like hell she’d spoken up sooner, I understood her position.
    Those pictures were the start of my trash pile. There was no sense in keeping them when I had absolutely no desire to hold on to any of those memories. That phase in my life happened, and now it was over.
    Anthony sat up all of a sudden and grabbed the side of the box, tilting it toward him so he could reach a picture of Sam. He spotted her from where he sat, which made me laugh a bit.
    “Yep, that’s your mommy.”
    A big grin came over his face as he smiled at the photo. The next second I had to run interference before he could get it into his mouth, though. “Nah… can’t have you slobbing all over this one, buddy. Feel free to drool on those, though,” I said, referencing the ones of Kira I’d just pitched.
    I dug deeper into the box and pulled out something else. It was the program for the Metropolitan Museum of Art from when Sam and I had come to the city, my gift to her for her eighteenth birthday. Moving here had been her dream since then. Low and behold, she got her wish. While, we weren’t right in the heart of the city, we were close enough for her to be satisfied.
    I smiled and touched my son’s hair when he patted my hand, letting me know he wanted a closer look when the colors caught his attention. “See? Daddy took mommy there a long time ago. She got to talk about art, about history, and a bunch of other stuff that made me look really dumb compared to her.”
    He grinned big at that.
    I placed the paper back inside the box and pulled out another item. Immediately, a smile crossed my face at the sight of the small, brown bear clothed in a red t-shirt that read ‘I think you’re beary sweet’. My mind went back to what felt like a lifetime ago to me and Sam’s senior year in high school. It was right after graduation, around the time she was getting out of the hospital following her car accident. I’d gone over to visit her at home one afternoon and she handed me this bear. ‘It’s for taking such good care of me while I was down, for being there,’ she’d said. I remembered it all so clearly, like it was yesterday.
    Anthony squealed in my lap, wanting to hold it.
    “Okay, okay, shhh… you’re gonna wake everybody up,” I said, smiling big as I let him take it. He had such a tight grip, I knew I probably wouldn’t get it back anytime soon. In that moment, I decided he should be the one to have it now, anyway. His mom would agree.
    “What y’all doin’?” Terrell asked groggily, stepping down into the foyer. He walked into the living room where I